Reddit mentions: The best indian cooking, food & wine books

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

I have the answer for you. Yes, a lot of cookbooks and videos will attempt to give you the "authentic" kind; I myself was consistently disappointed until I found the key. Or keys, actually. A few things they tend to do wrong:

• Too little onion. The gravy in Indian food is based on onions. It's what gives the sauce its smooth body; it acts as a thickener and a very subtle but important flavour enhancer. Can't make Indian food without it. It's not just one onion chopped and then "fried for 5 minutes until translucent". No — you need a whole bunch of onions, cooked (sweated) until tender and then blended into a fine pulp. Some Indian restaurants will also cook the onions with peppers, cabbage and tomatoes, among other things. Sweating the onions for 45-60 minutes is absolutely paramount. Sweated onions develop complex aromatics that taste completely differently from onions that have been just lightly fried in some oil.
  
  
• Too much unconcentrated tomato. Rather, a lot of recipes call for you to plop in a can of chopped tomatoes. This makes no sense: Tomatoes have a lot of water, so you don't get a concentrated gravy out of this, not unless you cook it for hours. It's the same shoddy deception as the classic cook-book illusion that pretends you can caramelize onions in five minutes. No, you need tomato paste: A really concentrated reduction of tomato.
  
  
• No ginger-garlic paste. One of the cornerstones of Indian food (and coincidentally also some middle-eastern cuisines and Thai) is the ginger-garlic paste, but it almos never comes up in recipes. In India you'll find jars of this in the supermarket. Making your own is better. It's what it says: Chopped garlic and ginger, minced in a blender until a fine paste.
  
  
• They skip the blending step. A lot of recipes ask you to combine chopped onions, tomatoes, spices and what not, and you get this chunky mess that is nothing like a true tikka masala. All the flavour is distributed in bits of onion, bits of coriander, watery tomato sauce. A great tikka masala sauce must be blended for about 5-6 minutes until perfectly smooth.
  
  
• Not enough fenugreek. This one is a matter of preference. I think tikka masala absolutely needs to be made with (a modest amount of) fenugreek leaves. To me, it's what turns something good into something awesome.
  
  
• Not enough paneer. Again, this is a matter of preference. Some cooks apparently only add paneer to butter chicken, not tikka masala. For me, the sauce is exactly the same thing (and historically, I think that is right: tikka masala is butter chicken sauce + tikka chicken). Anyway, adding crumbled paneer to a sauce makes it a lot better.
  
  The only recipe I have found to match the stuff you find in restaurants is an ebook by a British cook named Julian Voigt: The Secret to That Takeway Curry Taste. It's amazing. (I'm not affiliated with the author, just a happy customer.)
  
  Voigt runs a small "BIR"-style (British Indian Restaurant, pretty much what you associate with Indian food in the West) takeout place in England. His own recipes come from recipes he learned by working in Indian restaurants before he started his own. And unlike many recipes which claim to be "authentic", they truly are. The book is charmingly amateurishly put together and completely unpretentious.
  
  Voigt's recipe is basically a three-step process, from memory:
  
  
• Onion gravy base. This is, at its most basic, sweated onions + lots of neutral vegetable oil + fresh chili + some tomatoes + garam masala, cooked for about 90 minutes and then blended until perfectly smooth. The base smells like old gym socks and has a brown, goopy, unappealing exterior. It's used as the base for the actual sauce.
  
  
• Tikka masala sauce base. This is yogurt + tomato paste + spice paste + red food dye. Voigt uses a combination of several off-the-shelf Indian spice pastes as a shortcut.
  
  
• Final sauce = heat onion base, add a few spoonfuls of tikka masala sauce base + ginger-garlic paste + coriander leaves + coconut powder (aka coconut flour; a BIR oddity, I believe, but it does makes the sauce mellower) + fenugreek leaves + paneer (optional, it's not in the book) + a little heavy cream to finish.
  
  The whole book is made from the perspective of a restaurant chef, so everything is scaled to large batches. That's why the sauce bases are separate. The nice thing is that you can make 5 liters of onion base and freeze what you don't need; the onion base can be used for all sorts of dishes since it's pretty flavour-neutral.
  
  I highly recommend the book.
  
  Edit: Didn't read the Guardian recipe until now. Yeah, they make those mistakes. The author knows about ginger-garlic paste, but uses a can of tomatoes and doesn't sweat the onions.

Hey there. Came into this thread for other reasons, but saw the mini-discussion on Indian food and felt compelled to chime in, lol.

A lot of great Youtube chefs exist that focus on the cuisine; VahChef and Manjula in particular stand out. Also sites like ShowMeTheCurry and VegRecipesOfIndia are great, too.

I hear a lot of good things about Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks, though I don't personally own one.

It's a really fascinating and diverse cuisine, since it covers many different regions of the Indian subcontinent with very different cultures, agricultural heritages, religious beliefs, etc., that all influence the food. From super healthy ultra vegan stuff to deep fried goodies, it's got it all :-D

Good luck learning more, and if you wind up with any specific questions, always feel free to shoot me a message :)

I'm guessing you haven't looked yet? Given that most Indian food (I think) is good, and a lot of it is vegetarian, you'd have a hard time finding something not fitting your needs ;)

You might want to take a look a Manjula's Kitchen, a free YouTube-based Indian cooking guide.

A good book I'd recommend (if you really like Indian food) is Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, an 800 page tome with everything you could want. Here's a recipe I made recently which I enjoyed.

---

Cabbage Kofta (Bandhgobhi Kofta)

Preparation and cooking time (after assembling ingredients): about 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

3 1/2 cups (930 ml) finely shredded trimmed cabbage (about 1 lb/455 g)
1-2 hot green chilies, seeded and minced
1/2-inch (1.5cm) piece of peeled fresh ginger root
1/4 cup (25g) grated fresh or dried coconut
1 tsp (5 ml) each turmeric and garam masala
3 Tbps (45ml) finely chopped fresh coriander, parsley or mixed herbs
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
ghee or vegetable oil for deep-frying
about 1 cup (100 g) sifted chickpea flour (sifted before measuring)
a few sprigs of coarsely chopped fresh coriander or minced parsley for garnishing
1 Tbps (15 ml) toasted chopped pumpkin seeds for garnishing

1. Squeeze the shredded cabbage between your palms to extract excess moisture, then blend with the green chilies, ginger, coconut, tumeric, garam masala, herbs, salt and baking powder.
   
2. When you are ready to fry the koftas, being warming 2 1/2 - 3 inches (6.5-7.5 cm) of ghee or vegetable oil in a karai, wok or deep-frying pan over moderate heat. While the oil is heating, add the flour into the cabbage mixture and knead by hand until the ingredients are bound together. (The cabbage should have enough moisture to hold the ingredients together. As it sits, the mixture will become looser. For this reason, it is important to add the flour just before shaping and frying. You may need to add sprinkles of water or more chickpea flour to ensure a mixture that can be pressed into logs. If you make this recipe in quantity, mix the ingredients in batches.) Divide into 8 portions and press into logs about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) long.
   
3. Raise the heat to moderately high, and when the oil reaches 355ºF (180ºC), slip in 6-8 logs at a time, depending on the pan size, maintaining the temperature at between 335º-340º (168ºC-171ºC). After the koftas bob to the surface, turn them frequently and fry for 8-10 minutes or until evenly browned to reddish-gold color and crispy texture. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Keep warm in a 250ºF (120ºC) oven while frying the remaining koftas. Allow the temperature to reach 355ºF (180ºC) before frying the second batch. Before serving, place the logs in a heated shallow serving dish and cover with a seasoned tomato gravy (another recipe).

> the most flavorful cuts of meat are the ones that scare you and you'll never purchase them

This. In some of my favorite recipe books, several potentially great meals are skipped because they're calling for unorthodox cuts that scare the shit out of me. Half the time it takes days to find a place where I can get it. Two butchers will tell me they don't sell that, one will tell me they can get one for Thursday. With some luck I can find a frozen specimen. Truly, it feels like I'm hunting for some piece of extraterrestrial belly.

Bones, fuck even bones can be complicated to get. Lamb bones for stock. Sorry, we throw them away unless a customer asks, come by Thursday. No problem, please cut them in 3 inch pieces, I'm making stock, not a marimba, thanks! As for what body part or appendage those bones from are (legs, ribs, shoulders) I never dared to ask.

Fish, I hate shopping for fish. Hello, do you have sable fish? No we rarely do, except sometimes at the end of the season. Well thanks good sir, how can I subscribe to your newsletter? I'd feel like an ass to call and ask what fresh fish they're carrying today so I can select a recipe accordingly BEFORE going out shopping. The short shelf life of fish creates an egg or chicken dilemma: do I choose a recipe and hope to find the fish, or go get some fish and go back home to find a recipe and again back to the store to get other ingredients.



> most (not all) restaurant cookbooks dumb down recipes for you

That's strange, my best cookbooks are from restaurants. I find that most non-restaurant cookbooks (rachel ray stuff, cooking the italian way) contains a multitude of beginner meals I don't care about. If I want to mix pasta and pancetta with some vegetables, I can do it myself thanks. And thai cookbooks that calls for "store-bought green curry paste" goes directly to the trash. Googling recipes works just as well.

On the opposite side, you you have the classical hardcore style "French Cooking" stuff that calls for killing and brining a living rooster in every other recipe. That sounds fantastically rewarding, but I have a day job.

For fine, modern, complex and layered yet approachable recipes, locally oriented & world-inspired restaurants seems to be where it's at. I'm not sure how dumbed down those recipes are from the real thing (as I've never been to them), but those 2 from Vancouver have provided quite fantastic culinary learning and experiences for me:

• Warren Geraghty's West, The Cookbook
  
• Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine
  
  If anyone has recommendation of great restaurant cookbooks, I'd love to hear them.

Here's a list of the ones I own and love:

• Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook
  
  
• Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen: Epic Anytime Recipes with a World of Flavor
  
  
• Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face
  
  
• Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Desserts: More than 100 Exciting New Recipes for Cookies and Pies, Tarts and Cobblers, Cupcakes and Cakes--and More!
  
  Can't go wrong with any of these. I have come to view the world differently through food since going vegan. I would love to add a variety of other flavors like Caribbean, Asian - though some of these do include that, Vegan Richa is great for expanding beyond Indian food. I also highly recommend looking into Ethiopian foods, they are lentil heavy and flavorful.
  
  Also to note, Hot for Food has a blog and youtube channel, and Vegan Richa has a blog and has been making videos as well so you can check them out and see if the recipes interest you.
  
  
• https://www.veganricha.com/
  
• https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/
  
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudzojQxnLAI7uQPVYJy_oQ

I won't be much help with this, but Indian food is insanely varied. It's not just as simple as "North Indian/South Indian" or "Vegetarian/Meat". I think one of the challenges with finding great "authentic" Indian recipes, is that each family has their own adaptation, and these are passed down through each generation through sharing the love and need to cook quality food in the home.

I guess what I'm saying, is that regional authentic dishes often don't make it onto paper.

I've had great success making Vikram Vij's recipes, he's from Vancouver, BC.

https://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510071514&sr=1-1&keywords=vikram+vij&dpID=41J5kSp1EuL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak is a great book with tonnes of clever ideas and substitution advice, all of her books are pretty great. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen would be a great one as well, same with Bryant Terry's Afro Vegan. If you are looking for something easy and cutesy, the vegan stoner cookbook is a good bet too.

This is vegetarian and does the no-onion and no-garlic thing, but it's quite big and covers a lot of material - a good starting point. It really teaches a lot about the what and the whys of Indian food. It was written by the (American) personal cook of the Hare Krishna founder, she followed him around all over India when he travelled there, learning recipes from his hosts.

• http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642
  
  Some easy to get into books
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Home-Cooking-Introduction-Recipes/dp/0609611011
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Indian-Cooking-Recipes/dp/0778801705
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Street-Food-India-Greatest-Complete/dp/184885420X
  
  This is a classic Indian cookery books that grannies used to have
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Balbir-Singhs-Indian-Cookery/dp/0263700194
  
  Tarla Daral was a popular food writer in India
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/user/TarlaDalalsKitchen
  
  Something from Punjab
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Punjabi-Khana-Tarla-Dalal/dp/8189491547
  
  This is not a beginners book, but very interesting
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Grand-Trunk-Anirudh-Arora/dp/1847739687
  
  These Kerala restaurants do lovely modern cookbooks
  
  
• http://www.rasarestaurants.com/rasa_books.html
  
  More from South India
  
  
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dakshin-Vegetarian-Cuisine-South-India/dp/9625935274/
  
• http://www.nimmypaul.com/html/nmy_recp_01.html
  
• http://www.kamalascorner.com/
  
  SOURCE: have been collecting books and shared cooking tips with Indian friends for a while

There are a lot of varieties, and they can taste pretty different. The good news is that they are hard to screw up.

For Thai curries, I like these pastes, they just get mixed with coconut milk (ratio is on the can), heated, and then you simmer veggies in the sauce until they are cooked to your liking. The red and green are spicy, the panang is somewhere in the middle, and the yellow and masaman are mild.

This is a good and easy Japanese curry. Instructions are on the box. It involves some simple sauteing and simmering.

And for Indian curries, I have been making my own using these recipes. There are so many good recipes in this book, and they are pretty easy too. However, you might need to up the contents of your spice cabinet to make these.

Anyhow, curries are usually just a very flavorful sauce with veggies simmered in them. Pretty easy stuff, lots of variety, and very tasty.

Hi again,
I have learnt the little I know through reading (and cooking). Especially Madhur Jaffrey http://www.amazon.com/An-Invitation-To-Indian-Cooking/dp/0880016647 and Monisha Bharadwaj http://www.amazon.co.uk/Indian-Kitchen-Monisha-Bharadwaj/dp/1856266591
I will copy a few paragraphs out by Madhur Jaffrey that I hope will clarify what I mean:

Sometimes as you glance at a couple of recipes, the spices used may look identical, which may lead you to the conclusion that the two dishes will taste the same. But that is not necessarily true. It is not only what spices you use, but also how you use them that gives dishes their special taste and appearance. Take cumin for instance. If it is roasted whole and crushed, its coffee colour will darken the looks of any food and its strong aroma will fill not just your kitchen, but your entire house. This way it has a sharp, nutty taste. Whole cumin, when it is 'popped' in very hot fat, has a mild aroma and a gentle, licorice-like taste. Ground, unroasted cumin provides a third flavour, and perhaps the mildest taste of the three.

Different spices require different treatment during cooking. Turmeric burns easily and becomes bitter, so it is generally used in conjunction with some liquid. Saffron gives of its best colour when lightly roasted, crushed and then left to soak in warm milk. Too many fenugreek seeds can make a dish bitter, so while you can play around with the number of peppercorns or cardamom pods you put in a dish, you cannot do the same with fenugreek.

Spices, herbs and other seasonings are always added to the cooking pot in a specific order, and this again changes the taste of the dish. For example, if a hot, dried pepper is browned in oil and then mixed with cooked lentils, the lentils will not be very hot, but will have gained the subtle flavour of the pepper. On the other hand, if the pepper is browned in oil first and cooked with the lentils, you will end up with a fairly hot dish. This applies to nearly all the spices as each has their own peculiarities. The order in which they are put into the pot is extremely important.

Not sure how you feel about Indian food but I've been working my way through this cookbook and the author does a really good job of telling you how to modify the recipes to make things gluten free or nut free or other dietary/allergen needs. Recipes are some of the tastiest things I've made too, probably from using fresh spices. The variety of spices can feel a little over whelming but it's been fun learning about it. Also if you go to an Indian grocery store they are suprisingly cheap.

Big fan of Aarti Paarti, a definite mix of recipes with some nice fusions. You get the best of traditional Indian and delicious new dishes! Certainly won't get bored, best of all there's great info on spices, cooking techniques, and the works. https://smile.amazon.com/Aarti-Paarti-American-Kitchen-Indian/dp/1455545414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483194802&sr=8-1&keywords=aarti+paarti

If you don't find yourself drawn to meat dishes, and you've got the basics of French technique down, why not try exploring Indian cuisine? Obviously, they have a whole different take on spices --- it's a whole different layer in your cooking that should teach you how to draw out different flavors from the same ingredients, learn new flavors, and different ways of combining them -- there was an interesting study recently suggesting that in contrast with most Western cuisines, which tend to put complementary flavors together, indian cuisine tend to combine contrasting flavors, balancing them against each other. The thing with a lot of that California farm-to-table style is that a lot of it's about finding great ingredients and doing as little as possible to them, but if you're finding yourself bored with that something that's a little more sophsticated and layered might be an interesting challenge.

There's lots of places to start -- Madhur Jaffrey, of course, or Manjula on youtube, but I've always liked this cookbook, myself --- 50 Great Curries of India. has a solid introductory section on spices and really showcases a huge variety of stuff from differnt parts of the continent.

I always like a good curry in cold weather. Have various recipes but recently was recommend this book, The Curry Secret, so hoping you try it soon.

Something else that I came across last summer, is a dessert. Super simple, unhealthy but seriously delicious.

Apparently, it’s called a Malaysian pudding - not sure why though.

1lt of good quality double cream yoghurt mixed with half a can (~200g) of condensed milk. Somehow this combination just makes a difference. Then add all your cut fruits, so...paw-paw, sweet melon, apple, peaches, banana, maybe pineapple. Let it refrigerate a bit to release the fruit juices. Simple goodness.

If they are in season, I like to make a berry version with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a banana to balance the flavors. It’s also for the lazy, because only the bananas and strawberries require cutting up. When dishing into bowls, garnish with a cherry.

Hmmm interesting. Whatever I stated is from Indian Food: A Historical Companion by K T Achaya. It is a very detailed and well researched book.

I cannot vouch for the 100% veracity of all facts in the book, and I am not a historian, rather someone who is interested in food, food history, and food culture. It seems you are knowledgeable about ancient Indian history. You could very well be right about AIT/AIM multi-wave theory or perhaps this theory (and the DNA analysis) got debunked after the book was published.

If you are interested in history and its intersection with food, I would highly recommend reading this book. Review/summary here. It really is a goldmine of a ton of interesting facts and also appears to be very well researched and most facts/assertions are backed with references of which historic texts it was picked up from.

I know, it's easy to get tired of chili since it's easy to make a TON of it and eat it regularly.

So it's the instant pot worth it? I've seen all over the place in reddit. It's not so popular here in Europe and I haven't seen it in appliance stores.

Also never heard of the Thug Kitchen cookbook. "Eat like you give a fuck" lol. Thanks for the references :)

By the way, if you like indian food I highly recommend this book I've been getting lots of good curry recipes from it.

I recommend you check out Vegan Richa, who has tons of traditional Indian recipes without all the butter and cream, and far fewer calories. I've been a fan of Indian food for decades and can tell you her recipes are very hard to distinguish from their higher-fat inspirations and in many cases, possess more complexity and nuance than what I'm used to. One of my favorites is her Mango Tofu Curry, which is the sort of recipe you'll never find in the typical Westernized Indian restaurant, and cleverly subs tofu for paneer. She also has a book I definitely recommend.

Nice! If you're into cooking, I recommend this cookbook. Super delicious Indian food that tastes really rich but is 100% vegan. Lots of coconut cream and coconut yogurt and tons and tons of vegetables.

I seriously feel like I'm indulging whenever I make some of these recipes, and then I remember it's VEGETABLES. IT'S ALL VEGETABLES.

not that coconut cream is the least caloric thing,but still. it's delicious, so worth it.

Im glad that video helped. I love Keto Connect, I have made a ton of their recipes because there videos are super easy to follow and short. They have a cookbook too btw, I have not used it nearly as much as the youtube videos but it has some good ones in it. I do make their pancakes regularly :) https://www.amazon.com/Keto-Made-Easy-Dishes-Fast/dp/1628602880/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=keto+connect&qid=1573136333&sr=8-4

Get yourself Julia Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking book. It's a great place to start. If you're primarily into veg, another place to go would be Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine which is a positively massive cookbook that is great and vedic (no onions, etc. only hing).

Also, Manjula's Kitchen has some good videos.

Honestly, most anything by Madhur Jaffrey is great. She is not an exclusively vegetarian chef, but she treats vegetarian dishes with respect. I love her book Vegetarian India.

Curry roughly means 'sauce' - it is just stuff cooked in sauce, but in the Uk we take it to mean a vast array of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes of meat, vegetables and pulses in spices sauces (and we also use it for similar dishes from SE asia etc).

Curry powder is an abomination the Brits took to, a generic and almost always stale blend of identikit spices people put in such dishes. If you want to learn this set of dishes, go buy a bunch of whole spices and a cheap coffee grinder to grind them up.

There are many 'real' curries as well as many anglicized versions that are common in the UK (famously, Tikka Masala is a Brit thing not an Indian one). There are also things like Rajma Chawal (probably mispelled) which are common in india.

In terms of commonalities - toasted or tempered spices, an onion base and probably cumin/coriander/turmeric as the most basic spices, with some more liquid ingredient (tomato, coconut milk etc) and some meat or veg is the basic makeup.

If you want to learn how to make curries i can suggest some books. Indian Vegetarian Cookery by Jack Santa Maria is one i liked and he has oen on non veg cookery too. Madhur Jaffrey is well known in the Uk for popularising hoem cooked indian food. More modern, Anjum's New Indian is not bad (based on a BBC series I think) though i find her a bit annoying on TV.

Mung Bean & Coconut Curry

1 cup mung beans

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tbsp cumin seeds

3 tbsps chopped garlic

2 cups puréed tomatoes

2 tbsps chopped ginger

2 tbsps ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp crushed cayenne pepper

3 cups of water

2 cups coconut milk, or 1 can.

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Wash and drain mung beans and set aside.

Heat oil in a medium pot on medium-high for 1 minute. Add cumin seeds and allow them to sizzle for 45 seconds, or until they are a darker brown. Add garlic and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, until brown but not burned. Stir in tomatoes, then add ginger, coriander, turmeric, salt and cayenne. Stir and sauté masala for 5 minutes, or until oil glistens. Add water and mung beans, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Taste beans to make sure they are cooked (I reduced the amount of water needed; if the mixture is drying out and you need more simply add 1/2 cup at a time).

Stir in coconut milk and increase the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat (if you want to thicken your curry some more, you can let it simmer on medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes). Stir in cilantro and serve.

Adapted from Vijs At Home: Relax, Honey: The Warmth and Ease of Indian Cooking

Check out vegan richa's cookbook. If you like indian food, you'll love it. Most of the recipes are simple-medium complexity, and they make a lot of servings. Plus you don't feel bad for stuffing yourself with them since it's almost entirely really healthy food. Plus some of the desserts (especially the doughnuts) are unbelievable in how good they taste.

that sounds wonderful. I have seen and liked the ones by Madhur Jaffery. She almost holds your hand and guides you in the kitchen in her books on Indian cuisine. And the curries turn out great too.

Edit: Is this the book you are referring to?

Got one Asian store and one Indian resto in this burg. The store's pretty good, and the resto survives because -- only one in town.

Here's what I did:

Shop online, and learn how to make a base gravy like THIS BLOKE does and take it from there into the higher orders of Indian cooking. It's BIR, not Mumbai, but you take what you can get and BIR ain't exactly chump change for Small Town, USA.

You can order just about any of the basics for Indian cooking, and cooking appliances (karai for example), online.

Indians are fantastic at blogging and putting up YouTube videos; there's a real opportunity to learn from that as opposed to when this older Redditor was expanding horizons.

The online purchases won't be cheap, but when you have a craving for quality food, you have the budget to get it.

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com is a great resource.

As for an Indian cookbook: this is regarded as the bible: India: The Cookbook, it has everything you will ever need (it has over 1000 recipes!). It’s wonderfully designed, to look like a bag of flour like one would buy in India.

Her book, Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen is really good, she has a vegan "paneer" recipe in there and pretty much everything you could want. Even sweets, there's a good gulab jamun in there too!

Vikram Vij's cookbook is excellent, there are a ton of super easy curries easily made with spices that are available in most North American supermarkets. There's one made with eggplant and green onions, and another that combines chicken thighs cooked in coconut milk with a raw cilantro, onion, garlic, ginger chutney at the end...spectacular! Can't recommend this one enough!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1553651847/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20

We love ours so much that we bought a second one. I can cook food that I like better than what I can get in a restaurant, and that together with Alternate Day Fasting has lead to 30 pound weight loss since August.

I really love the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/

There isn't one Indian cuisine. There's a few dozen, at least.
For a somewhat US focused book:
http://www.amazon.com/660-Curries-Raghavan-Iyer/dp/0761137874

For a somewhat worse printing, with better recipes: http://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

Reading the reviews will probably help.

I like the "Essential Cookbook" series from Penguin. These are definitely closer to what I would eat at home than the recipes in the more popular cookbooks.

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Kerala-Cookbook-Vijayan-Kannampilly/dp/0143029509

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Marathi-Cookbook-Kaumudi-Marathe/dp/0143068024

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Andhra-Cookbook-Hyderabadi-Bilkees/dp/0140271848

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pondicherry-Kitchen-Lourdes-Tirouvanziam-Louis/dp/9381626995

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Sindhi-Cookbook-Aroona-Reejhsinghani/dp/0143032011

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Cookbook-Maria-Teresa-Menezes/dp/0141000872

http://www.amazon.com/The-Essential-North-East-Cookbook/dp/0143030272

http://www.amazon.com/Saraswat-Mahila-Rasachandrika-Second-Paperback/dp/B00RWSJ7M0

SAMAITHU PAR (vol 1-4) is a book aimed at Tamil Iyer vegetarian cooking.

If you want authors more aimed at an occidental cook, I would suggest Madhur Jaffrey, Sanjeev Kapoor, Tarla Dalal, Vikas Khanna and Julie Sawhney

I love cooking Indian food. My favorite that hasn't been mentioned yet is Lord Krishna's Cuisine. It's vegetarian but contains hundreds of recipes (dals, bean dishes, vegetable dishes, rice dishes, breads, chutneys, sweets, etc) and a lot of information about general indian cuisine and it's an interesting read.

I have Vikram Vij's most recent cookbook and it has been well worth the price. Mounds of food that is affordable and easy to source [Punjabi Market or whatever it's called, in the Main and Fraser area] and which taste like fine restaurant quality food.

I know this isn't what you asked for, not being very particular on brands and all, but I haven't found a bad product in any of my quests to Punjabi Market. Everything I have made so far has been amazing, and several dishes have been requested again and again.

The cuisine of India is incredibly vast. I know of no book which attempts to standardize and codify everything. However, there are several books out there which chop up Indian food into more manageable regional bits.

Two recommendations, one old and cheap, the other new and expensive. Both books are divided by region and focus on regional recipes. For the cheap approach, look for Madhur Jaffrey's "A Taste of India." The chapters are broken down into the individual regions and it's a good place to start learning about the different cuisines of India. Another book which takes the same approach is Christine Mansfield's "Tasting India." Mansfield's book is jaw droppingly gorgeous. The photography is stunning.

If you have any more questions, please let me know. I love Indian food and have tons of Indian cookbooks.

I bought an Instant Pot and have been cooking Indian recipes from Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. I think you could make it work in a dorm with a small set of kitchen items (knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, utensils) if appliances are allowed in your room. A lot of the ingredients don't require refrigeration (lentils, spices, ghee, rice, etc) or can be canned (e.g. tomatoes). I can get most of the non-perishable ingredients online, and just buy the fresh ingredients as I use them.

The food is healthy, affordable (I used to eat out a lot but now rarely do), and leftovers have been delicious!

Instant Pots do cost a bit, but I'm certain I've already saved money and I'm eating much healthier. I'm not really tracking my calories (yet) but I lost 4 pounds since I started cooking this way a month ago.

Aah asafoetida - sometimes called Devil's Dung because of its aroma, especially when the powder is fresh! A pinch or two is all that is ever needed, and it adds a similar flavour to onions and garlic to a dish. It is commonly used with lentils and beans.

In South India it is used quite a bit. It is very common in Sambar and Rasam dishes. It is also very common in Ayurvedic cooking as that does not use onions or garlic.

The cookbook Lord Krishna's Kitchen uses it in almost every recipe, and the recipes are all great.

This is a great article on Asafoetida - and here is one of the few recipes you will find with it in the title - Salt Lassi with Asafoetida

I've come across a few great vegan cooking resources that you may be interested in:

• minimalist baker
  
  
• vegan richa site
  
  
• vegan richa indian cookbook
  
  please share others!

I like Pushpesh Pant, India: The Cookbook. However, it isn't a beginner's cookbook, and might be hard to get into if you haven't cooked Indian food before.

For a great beginner's cookbook: Monisha Bharadwaj, The Indian Cooking Course.

Not as comprehensive as the first one above, and not as beginner friendly as the second, but a nice cookbook with some very good recipes: Priya Wickramasinghe, Food of India.

I like recipes, so may I recommend a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Indian-Home-Cooking-Introduction-Recipes/dp/0609611011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290208811&sr=8-1

Most recipes use whole spices. I've had the book for several years and have made lots of the dishes in it -- all absolutely yummy. Latest was southern-spiced lahori chicken curry (although I used cornish hens instead)

I have been doing the same thing (I am into the better part of the learning curve now :)

I highly recommend this cookbook by Vikram Vij. Everything in it I have cooked has been dynamite. What I think is more important is that there is much information about the various methods (for example how to make ghee, garam massala etc) and a lot of insightful suggestions in the recipes themselves about certain pitfalls to avoid etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451415907&sr=8-1&keywords=vijs

I'm no expert in Indian cuisine, but I have this book and I really like it. Great variety in the recipes and tons of pictures. I think it represents most of the regions cuisines.

https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

There are lots here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes
https://www.google.com/images?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes

Here are just a few others that are either keto or low carb (which could have ingredients left out or modified), some of which are groups at Facebook with lots of recipes:

Keto Instant Potters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1700398993513578
Low Carb Instant Pot Recipes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1434534513230508
The Paleo Instant Pot (Paleo or Primal, or not)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/paleoinstantpot

I Breathe I’m Hungry:
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2017/03/35-best-low-carb-paleo-instant-pot-recipes.html
Nomnompaleo:
https://nomnompaleo.com

Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/shariweiner55/low-carb-instant-potpressure-cooker

twosleevers --blog & cookbooks (mostly keto because she and her husband eat keto or very low carb):
https://twosleevers.com/recipe-index/?fwp_dietary_consider=keto
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF
https://twosleevers.com/product/instant-favorites-easy-delicious-mexican-pressure-cooking

cookbook...looks good, but haven’t gone through entirely:
Instant Pot Cookbook: Delicious Asian Inspired Ketogenic Diet I.Pot Recipes (Kindle)

Somebody already mentioned 'Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan'. There's also Lost Recipes. 'Raja, Rasoi..' is available on Netflix. It's very informative. Brilliant stuff!

I found a blog which mentioned some books about ancient Indian cooking.

This book looks good. A blog summarising the author's work.

Some interesting links I found:

http://southindianfoods.in/ancient_recipes.html

http://www.thehindu.com/seta/2004/10/21/stories/2004102100111600.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/seta/2004/11/04/stories/2004110400061500.htm

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/ajeats/2016/01/chronicler-indian-food-160104113715853.html

http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/the-dead-recipes-society-111040200021_1.html

https://mumbai-magic.blogspot.in/2014/12/the-archaeology-of-food-ancient-indian.html

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/idli-saga-a-study-into-the-origin-of-the-south-indian-dish/articleshow/1969178.cms?intenttarget=no

There is a book called "The Curry Secret" which has recipes for British-Indian Restaurant food - not 'authentic' Indian food, but the stuff you get in a UK restaurant. Very different thing.

It has a kickass chicken tikka masala recipe in it, I can eat the tarka dahl with a spoon until I turn greeny yellow from the tumeric, and if you take the time you can make the prettiest, fluffiest pilau rice you can imagine.

I own only one recipe book (the internet suffices for everything else) but that book is (to me) worth it.

Just got this one: Rasika: Flavors of India and it's pretty great, though maybe not "authentic." Rasika (and Rasika West End) are world-class restaurants here in DC. Made for an epic Thanksgiving...and one totally destroyed kitchen. :)

It's in Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook. The book came out earlier this year, and it's great.

I got his vegetarian book for Christmas. Haven't made any of the recipes yet, but they look great:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864/

Depending on where you live, your library might have a bunch. You can check them out, try some recipes, and see if it's one you might want to buy.

I like a lot of international and multi-cultural flavors so I like a wide variety of cookbooks including:

Afro Vegan

Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen

Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen

and a general cookbook that helps you make your own dishes using vegan staples:

The Homemade Vegan Pantry

If you are a big fan of Indian food, like me, I recommend Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Richas-Indian-Kitchen-Traditional/dp/1941252095/ref=nodl_

She also has a website https://www.veganricha.com/

So a few people have recommended this book to you: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

Well, you're in luck, because I've found a couple of videos on Youtube made by the author of that book that explain how to make Tikka Masala.

Here's the video showing how to make the sauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLfhMF2WaZw

And here is the video showing how to cook the dish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wjyOdNdSw

All indian curries that I cook have to be cooked on the stove for an additional 30 minutes or so to remove the water and concentrate the flavors. You could try to take out some of the water, but sometimes the water is needed to prepare the ingredients.

For instance, in punjabi chicken curry, you cook the curry, then add water, stir and boil the rest of the water off.

I would get a book that has recipes that are meant to be cooked on the stove top. I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/Anjums-New-Indian-Anjum-Anand/dp/0470928123

If you don't want to get a new book, try taking out some of the water and see how it goes. :)

Ugh, this is killing me. I used to work in the store of the Asian Art Museum in SF and when we had an Indian exhibit last year we got the most wonderful array of Indian cookbooks in stock. One of them was separated into regional categories and the Goan food always made me drool. I have been poring over the Indian cookbooks on Amazon and I cannot find it! I seem to remember it having a blue cover and it was a fairly recent publication but that's all I've got. I don't work there anymore so I can't check, but it might be worth calling them to see if they still carry it: (415) 581-3600. Anyway in my hunt I did find these two:

How to Cook Indian - we also carried this wonderful cookbook.

The Essential Goa Cookbook - no idea whether this is any good, but you ought to check it out!

Look up Jain and/or Buddhist recipes. Jain should exclude onions, potatoes & garlic. Buddhist should exclude onion & garlic, too but from what I've read, the onion is iffy, so it's good you have a substitute readily available.

Lord Krishna's Vegetarian Cooking cookbook follows the Vaishnava diet, which should also exclude onions & garlic.

Good luck!

Same reason all shop curries are a bit shit, they cheap out on the ingredients, a decent korma from a curry house will have a good amount of ground almonds in it, shop versions which are produced in massive quantities in factories for a very strict price margin will most likely have more cream in and possibly cheaper nuts, spices used in a curry house will also be freshly roasted and ground, where as factory versions are not roasted before hand and they will use the very bare minimum of the expensive spices to achieve something that is just about OK for the price demanded by the supermarket.

If they can save a couple of grams of spice in every portion accords hundreds of portions it’s hundreds of £s saved.

If you’re disappointed by supermarket versions, try making your own, I highly recommend;

The Curry Secret

This is an updated version of the original, I still refer to my copy which has so many spices impregnated into the pages I could probably eat the ratty old thing and it would taste goood!

This ebook would be fantastic!

How many dogs do you have? I'm currently a 3 dog household and its been rough! Still trying to get them all to get along.

Pooper Scooper

For a slightly less heavyweight introduction (to specifically Indian curry), I highly recommend this book by Camellia Panjabi. It's a selection of (only) 50 recipes, but it's got a great introductory section talking about the different basic techniques and ingredients, plus titbits about the regions/cuisine of India and the religious/cultural background to the food. I've been slowly making my way through the recipes for a few years now and I've yet to have a real flop from it

IMO Ready meal curries are generally similar to typical indian restaurant takeaway curries. I learnt to cook them this way thanks to https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant-Meals/dp/0716021919 . However it's actually easier and as cheap to buy the supermarket ones.

for many ethnic dishes, a good cookbook is the only resource.
you can look around for variations, some of them are terrible, some aren't. most cookbook authors are experts in their field. There are an extraordinary amount of good and bad recipes online. it;s a lot easier to trust the basics of a cookbook recipe than a random online cook. your mileage may vary.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Indian-Classic-Recipes/dp/1584799137

Palak (saag) paneer. This book has a recipe for it.

Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101874864/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_H-lqDbGAW2ZX8

If you're looking for a cookbook for this then Lord Krishna's Cuisine is one of the best cookbooks I've ever used.

https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642

India: The Cookbook by Prupesh Pant is probably the most comprehensive Indian recipe book you could ever hope to find.

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking is on my shelf. Good recipes & very comprehensive.

Buy The Curry Secret and make them yourself. They will taste just like a restaurant and so much better than a ready meal.

This book is amazing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Curries-India-Camellia-Panjabi/dp/1856265463

the chefs from Rasika wrote a cookbook! It's pretty!

​

​

https://www.amazon.com/Aarti-Paarti-American-Kitchen-Indian/dp/1455545414 is to be more chances of security / son

I used to follow her on IG, I kind of got the vibe she's just out to sell sell sell and ended up unfollowing her. I got the Craveable Keto cookbook and I've loved all the recipes I've done out of it so far. Also pre-ordered the Keto Connect cookbook because I can't support those two enough!

I got this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941252095?keywords=vegan%20richa&qid=1452442977&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Has a ton of recipes in it, all are pretty damn good.

I bought "Indian Instant Pot: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast". I guess the author is kind of famous in Instant Pot circles?

https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1522776004&sr=8-3

I have this exact issue, and I find myself returning time and time again to this cookbook. It's Jain vegetarian cuisine (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), and it's just a terrific resource

https://www.amazon.com/Aarti-Paarti-American-Kitchen-Indian/dp/1455545414 is a good book too..

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey. Here's a good one to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-Jaffrey-Indian-Cooking/dp/0764156497

Indian food: Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast

Braised meat... hmm i'd probably look at How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Though the recipes tend to be under-spiced for my tastes, but that shouldn't hold you back, it's a solid technique book.

A local Indian chef here, Vikram Vij, has produced a couple of cookbooks with his wife. I really like this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847

One of the biggest reasons I got the IP is for Indian food. Highly recommend Instant Pot Indian cook book

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0689707266

I bought A Taste of India, Madhur Jaffrey, in 1998, and have dragged it around the world with me ever since. Recipes, essays, and glorious photographs from all over different states in India; I can get lost in it.

If you like Indian food, this cookbook is pure gold.

This is an amazing book of recipes: https://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864

not veg, but have reduced a lot.

For Indian cuisine, try Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Here's some background on the author as well.

Alright then

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919

Yamuna Devi or Ragivan Iyer. The former is a true classic, and I've cooked nearly every recipe over the past 20 years. The later is a more recent book, but the recipes are every bit as classic (and delicious).

I decided to buy it because it was $4 on Amazon the 2nd book is $3

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_

I think you mean "definitive".

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

I came here to say the same thing. Here is the other one. Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine

The Curry Secret for Indian dishes. Actually making the base curry sauce right now.

Richa's Indian Kitchen is my curry-from-scratch bible.

Buy this book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919

This is an oven-adapted and expanded from the recipe in Pushpesh Pant's India: The Cookbook. It's a common deep-menu item in westernized restaurants, very tasty. Sweet and aromatic. As I mention in the post, I don't recommend hand-mashing the eggplant; it's a pain.

I would argue "The curry secret" shows British cooking, including such classics as Tikka Masala, and Rogan Josh.

Now I get that these might not fit into the "traditional British" category for some people, but not everyone wants a Sunday roast or toad in the hole.